See Texture Replacement & Request List, below.

There is one jarring thing: the camera has been fiddled with: it can now be pushed through the ground, pulled too far backwards (where depth cue obscures what's going on) and its field of view has been widened so that everything now looks distorted. I'm sure Relic went through all their options before they settled on their (better) camera configuration.

You can see a good number of screengrabs and work in progress at this RelicNews thread; Its looking fairly impressive so far. Current version: 1.4 Compatible Beta 1.

The Steel Legion itself is an army Imperial Guard, from (the planet?) Armageddon. The Steel Legion gets its name from its primary attribute: tanks. Lots and lots of lovely, old world tanks that look like they've rolled out of a cross between the two World Wars. It incorporates the Rhinoz Mini-Mod, and seems to have just about every tank that the W40K tabletop ever produced for the Imperium of Man. There's a tank for every season! Instead of a infantry Barracks, you get an Ammunition Bunker, a sort of light vehicle workshop, as distinct from the heavy vehicle Tank Bunker, which makes your heavy tanks like the Leman Russ and the Basilisk mobile artillery piece. Infantry are actually produced in your Headquarters, a solid chunk of reinforced concrete called the Fire Control Bunker, and in all Listening Posts. The Imperial Guard's heavy weapons (two guys wheeling around a Heavy Bolter on wheels, WWI style), a big tabletop feature that went missing in Winter Assault, finally get to make an appearance here. The Legion's tanks are a formidable obstacle to the other Winter Assault armies. Its heavily armoured anti-tank capability all but demolishes the regular Imperial Guard and leaves most other races in deep trouble - provided they get the opportunity to build up.

Your builder unit, the Pioneer Squad, is a cross between the Ork's Grot Squad and the Imperial Guard's Tech Priest; a small squad of specialised soldiers that call in structures, fight and cap flags - but are unable to repair anything. Repairs are done by a specialised tank called the Trojan. Buildings have a deserted WWII Bunker feel to them; large chunks of reinforced concrete with feathery old wire radar antennae and aerials that wouldn't look out of place on a lonely European beach somewhere. The Steel Legion's equivalent to the Armoury, the Relay Station, is an amazing old radar dish that towers prominently over your base. The Legion has a very Germanic feel to it; the helmets, gasmasks and trench coats are very reminiscent of the Wehrmacht and the First World War. The tanks have all been lovingly modeled and detailed, and almost look a little to clean. The anti-infantry horsemen are a bit of a shock.

Final version: 1.5. Yep, they've actually claimed to have finished! Its been a long time in coming, and this version is finally Winter Assault compatible. About the only issue I've come across was slight lag and a game crash after playing an Skirmish AI involving six sides making it to Tier4 - the intricate detailing on the Steel Legion probably soaks up a lot of memory. Nevertheless, this is the mod for any frustrated Imperial Guard fans out there. You can think of this as the expansion you have when you don't have an expansion!

Apparently a Dark Crusade version will be worked on soon. You can also peruse the Steel Legion's progress at its own forums or its latest RelicNews thread.

See Dawn of Warhammer 40,000 (Dawn of W40K or just DoW40K).

An custom modification that adds all kinds of wild and woolly units, abilities, effects and animation to all five race of Winter Assault. Current version: 0.4.3.

Holy Orders of the Inquisition, The: This is actually part of a trio of bilingual (English/Deutsche) custom add-ons that flesh out the Human Imperium's ongoing inquisition with all things alien and demonic. The main one is the Dæmonhunters: Ordo Malleus, a specialised branch of extra-special, extra-heavy Space Marines who seek out and exterminate anything vaguely Chaotic from the dreaded Warp. But there is also the Witch Hunters Mod: Dawn of Faith, feared Inquisitors who hunt down occult elements from within the Human population, and the Alien Hunters, who conduct the Imperium's ongoing xenocide with anything non-human in the galaxy. You can up all the full details about Games Workshop's original Dæmonhunters, Witchhunters, and at the Games Workshop site. See also: modDATABASE entry.

Current versions: Dæmonhunters 0.8, Witch Hunters 0.7, and Alien Hunters 0.2 (Alien Hunters is only a .pdf tech tree). Unfortunately, not much seems to have happened since 2005 (oh oh!) and these versions are only compatible with the original DoW 1.3.

A French custom mod with some extraordinary texturing and modeling. It adds the Ordo Malleus, the military wing to the Human Imperium's Inquisition to weed out and exterminate Chaos cults. Its signature unit is the Grey Knight and the look is one of shiny silver with gold trim. According to the authors, no betas will be released until its ready. In the meantime, there's plenty of amazing work in progress screengrabs to feast your eyes on. This is not to be confused with the other high caliber French mod, the Witchhunters.

A source of a number of W40K mini-mods for Dawn of War. They include:

Mark VI Space Marine Mod - This works in Winter Assault and changes the standard DOW space marines to pointy-beak marines like the old table top Rogue Trader game. Rogue Trader was the very first precursor to the game that eventually became Warhammer 40,000.

Nurglings Mod - Adds gross fly-infested Nurglings are small, revolting imps that nip at the heels of the Chaos Space Marines. Nurgle is one of the four Chaos Gods responsible for plagues and pestilence.

Naughty Nurse Mod - The only 18+ rated mod out there I think. As it's name implies, this mini-mod adds a "naughty nurse" unit to Space Marines, based on a risque Banshee.

Right now, tweaks and fixes notwithstanding, the custom Necrons are pretty much playable, with team colourable units (but not buildings, and there's no places for badges) and their build tree contains most of their buildings. They're yet to be balanced though: massed Necron grunts can blow away a headquarters with little effort. They are very slow, very implacable and seem more than capable of wiping out their opposition! You can deep strike the fearsome Monolith (as seen in the single player WA campaign) and pretty much wipe out everything before it.

The Necron Mod comes in module form and only appears in the Winter Assault Game Manager. Current version: 1.52. 1.6 is (still) imminent.

N.B. This mod is independent to the defunct Necron Mod, Eclipse of Existence.

See Dawn of Steel: Armageddon.

Current version: 1.5 beta. This version finally works with Winter Assault. While 1.5 has a complete build tree, some of the units look a little plain and somewhat under textured (most of the buildings don't look textured at all at this stage). This is an almost exclusively "shooty" race which seems to be extremely vulnerable to any melee attack. The only problem is that the other races haven't a hope in hell of getting within a mile of the Tau before being blown away. Even the basic Tier1 units, Tau's signature Fire Warriors, seem to be cheap, very powerful, highly mobile and able to reinforce rapidly. They seem to be able to counter Tier 2 units as comfortably as they wipe out Tier 1 hordes. Still as a work in progress, it shows tremendous potential. This is a mod worth keeping an eye on.

Current version: 0.3. This is Winter Assault compatible. The Tyranids mod appears to be making slow but steady progress. So far, there are only three custom units: the Genestealer (pictured), the rather Ripper Swarm builder unit (the Tyranid's version of the Grot Squad) and the living barracks building called the Troop Hive. (The Genestealer model also appears in the Space Hulk mod). All other Tyranid units, buildings and effects use Space Marine buildings and other units (like Gretchins, Slugga Flamers and Cultists) as temporary substitutes. Definitely keep an eye on this one.

The Adeptus Mechanicus are the mechanics and builders of all the weapons, vehicles and science for the Human Imperium. Like the Space Marines, the Mechanicus have their own fusion of religious fanaticism and mechanics (a la the Machine Spirit and Machine Cults). They're based on Mars, the main planetary foundry for the Human Imperium. You can read about the originals here. I'm told two beta versions have been produced for this, but the mod seems to have no FAQ's or relevant announcements on the subject. You can find a downloadable at DoWFiles.